Lisette Schumacher’s Desert Modernism series is inspired by her visit to Frey House II (1964) in Palm Springs, designed by Albert Frey. The house reflects a tension between civilisation and the surrounding desert landscape, a contrast that became central to Schumacher’s experience of the Coachella Valley.
During her travels through Palm Springs, Palm Canyon and Desert Hot Springs, she observed the striking interplay between the San Jacinto Mountains, desert vegetation and intense light. The visit to Frey House II, secluded and embedded in nature, reinforced this sense of living between inside and outside, where architecture and landscape merge.
In this series, Schumacher translates these impressions into colour. Warm desert tones such as yellow, brown, gold and orange are combined with cooler blues, echoing pools and sky, capturing both the atmosphere and structure of Desert Modernism.